A.M. Wilkinson
Alan Machin Wilkinson: (Schoolmaster and Half-back)
Described as a ‘bustling inside-right’, Wilkinson was another Old Reptonian. He went up to Oriel, Oxford in 1913 and by 1914 had received his blue for football. In his team were R.S.M. White and G.B.F. Rudd, both of whom would accompany him on the boat to South America.
Born in Eastbourne in 1891, his father was a civil engineer and had six children, 3 boys and 3 girls. He would lose two of the sons in the First War, Alan surviving. Although he had only played once for Corinthian as a last minute replacement, in October 1912, he had five outings for the Casuals. Wilkinson was a schoolmaster at Winchester at the outbreak of hostilities, but entered advertising after the War.
Wilkinson was a lieutenant in the 9th (cyclist) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment and was one of the reservists that rushed to get home from the abandoned tour. He quickly transferred to the Royal Flying Corp and was one of the first to fly fighting Bristol Scouts, mostly over the Somme. He was promoted to Captain in 1916 and became an ‘Ace’ very quickly, shooting down two planes on the same day and then several others over the following days. He had added a second Lewis gun to his plane, but this was ordered to be removed. Air combat at the time was in its infancy and planes he flew were made of wood and canvas, with no parachute, it was no wonder the average life expectancy of pilots was 10-15 days!
For a while he was the highest scoring scout pilot and in September that year, he fought several more combats, one with Oswald Boelcke, the German Ace. Later that year he was posted back to England and served as an instructor. Whilst home, he married Lina Rachel Snell.
In the Spring of 1917, he was posted to 48 Squadron and returned to France as Flight Commander and was quickly thrown into battle and up against the Baron Von Richthofen’s squadron. He survived that encounter and went on to claim 9 more successes in April over Arras, six of them in one day, making Wilkinson the first British pilot to claim this number in a day. The descriptions of his battles read like a hollywood movie, but the strain of what he was doing finally took its toll. In 1917, he suffered an appendicitis and before he could return to his Squadron, was diagnosed with ‘neurasthenia’, ( a form of combat stress or PTSD). He finished the War as Acting Lieutenant-Colonel in command of an Aerial Fighting School.
He was twice mentioned in despatches and in 1916, he received the Distinguished Service Order in recognition of gallantry and devotion to duty. It was reported that he, “...has shown great dash in attacking enemy machines, and up to the end of August he had accounted for 5. On one occasion, while fighting a hostile machine, he was attacked from behind,but outmanoeuvred the enemy, and shot him down. Finally he got back his machine much damaged by machine gun fire.”
Unusually, he received “Double D.S.O.” the following year, for, “...great skill and gallantry. He came down to a low altitude and destroyed a hostile scout which was attacking one of our machines, the pilot of which had been wounded, thereby saving it. In one day he shot down and destroyed six hostile machines. He has destroyed eight hostile machines during the past ten days and has displayed exceptional skill and gallantry in leading offensive patrols.”.
During the interwar years, he entered advertising as a profession and rose to become the Chairman of the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA), and was instrumental in drafting the guidelines for the ‘new medium’ of television advertising, and then became a director of the London Press Exchange.
In accepting to become the honorary secretary of the Casuals Football Club, after the War, Wilkinson was taking on a massive role, as in the Spring of 1914, S.L. King, the previous Hon. Sec. had died in an avalanche in New Zealand, and with him went much of the knowledge about the club and the members. For a brief period after King’s death, R.C. Cutter took over, but the War intervened.
Wilkinson was faced with a massive task and even though he had the support of many surviving members, had a lot of work to do. Criticized by the press for not providing team sheets for publication, the reason would become obvious as the team printed on the Saturday would invariably be significantly changed in the match reports on Monday. The debt the modern day club owes him is has not been recognised previously. He worked hard to bring the club back to its pre-war strength, and in October 1919, he and H.G. Yates, turned out for Casuals in the first Charity Cup tie since the ‘Split’ in 1907. The following month, he played for Corinthian against Oxford University and continued to play for Casuals, notching up over a dozen appearances by Christmas 1919.
With the outbreak of the Second War, he took the post as Commanding Officer at West Malling and in 1944, he resigned his commission but retained the rank of Wing Commander.
He died in Kent in 1972,
